chapter 8

Question 1

Be able to describe how connective tissue is part of the muscular system. Give examples of connective tissue in the muscular system.

Answer 1

Layers of connective tissue enclose and separate all parts of a skeletal muscle. Examples include fascia, epimysium, endomysium, and perimysium.

Question 2

Be able to describe the general structure of a skeletal muscle fiber.

Answer 2

A single muscle cell, a long thin cylinder with rounded ends that extends the full length of the muscle.

Question 3

Be able to list the five levels of organization for muscles

Answer 3

muscle, fascicles, muscle fibers, myofibrils, thick and thin filaments

Question 4

Explain what exactly striations are and what causes them as well as what types of muscles appear to have striations

Answer 4

Striations are repeating patterns of sarcomeres within each muscle fiber. The arrangement of actin and myosin causes these striations. Skeletal and cardiac muscle have striations.

Question 5

Be able to explain what a neuromuscular junction is

Answer 5

Site where an axon and muscle fiber meet

Question 6

Be able to explain what a motor unit is

Answer 6

A single nerve cell body and its axon plus all muscle fibers innervated by the axon’s branches

Question 7

Be able to explain what a neurotransmitter is

Answer 7

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that carry messages from one nerve cell to another.

Question 8

Be able to describe the relationship between cellular respiration and heat production. Why is the muscular system responsible for keeping the body warm?

Answer 8

Less than half of the energy released in cellular respiration is transferred to ATP, the rest of this energy becomes heat. Muscle tissue is a major heat source because muscle is such a large proportion of the total body mass. Blood transports heat generated in muscle tissue to other tissues, helping to maintain body temperature.

Question 9

Be able to list the three types of muscle tissue as well as multiple differences and similarities between the three types (location in the body, function, cellular characteristics, mode of control)

Answer 9

Cardiac muscle: wall of the heart, pumping the heart, single nucleus, striated, and involuntary.
Smooth muscle: blood vessels, movement of viscera, no striations, single nucleus, and involuntary.
Skeletal muscle: skeletal muscles, movement of bones at joints + maintains posture, striations, many nuclei, and voluntary